Announcing appearances, publications, and occasional thoughts on natural philosophy and ancient history by philosopher, historian, and author Richard Carrier.

Richard Carrier is the renowned author of several books including Sense and Goodness without God and Proving History, as well as numerous articles online and in print. His avid readers span the world from Hong Kong to Poland. With a Ph.D. in ancient history from Columbia University, he specializes in the modern philosophy of naturalism and humanism, the origins of Christianity, and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, with particular expertise in ancient philosophy, science and technology. He has also become a noted defender of scientific and moral realism, Bayesian reasoning, and the epistemology of history. For more about him and his work visit www.richardcarrier.info.

EVENTS

This May (Saturday and Sunday the 19th and 20th, 2012, with a pub meet on Friday) the Orange County Freethought Alliance (consisting of 24 secular groups in the Orange County area; that’s in southern California for those not in-the-know) is holding its third annual conference. I will be among the invited speakers and attendees. The conference theme is “Comparing the World Contributions: Science and Religion” (otherwise known as the millennial smackdown). My talk will be “Newsflash! Fine Tuning Proves There Is No God,” summarizing my key findings on the cosmological argument in The End of Christianity (chapter 12, “Neither Life Nor the Universe Appear Intelligently Designed”) and tying that in to the role of divine communication and “theology” as a method of knowing about the universe and God’s plan. It will be just a half hour presentation, then fifteen minutes of Q&A. But I’ll be attending the whole conference and would love to meet people from all over while I’m there.

I’m speaking that Sunday afternoon (3pm) Saturday night (8pm), at least according to the current schedule (there will be a panel Q&A later). The conference is being held on the campus of UC Irvine, at the campus Student Center (I don’t know where the Friday pub meet will be or where any of the meals and such will be served, but presumably you can find out at the UCI Student Center). On Saturday will be an afternoon session from 12pm to 5pm followed by the Barker-[Stock Godist] debate that evening. Sunday will be a morning session starting at 9am, and an afternoon session ending at 5pm. (The website’s front page is a bit wonky right now, but you can find the current schedule here.)

Some of my books will be sold throughout the conference by the OCFA (if you want, just bring any of those up to me later and I’ll sign them; ditto any books you already own and happen to bring). But I will also have a special sale at my own table after my talk for fifteen minutes (I earn the most from those sales). My new book Proving History will only be sold at the OCFA table (although if they run out, talk to me about possibly finding a couple more in the trunk of my car).

I have a lot of other appearances coming up, which I’ll be blogging soon. But this is the first one to get all its details together and up on a website (and it’s by registration only, so you’ll want to secure a spot early).